The Nigeria Table Tennis Federation, Ishaku Tikon has heaped praise on the LOC organization structure for the successful hosting of the just concluded WTT Contenders Lagos 2023 championship as well as taking up the responsibilities to ensure that the hosting rights given to Nigeria by ITF was justified.
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Ishaku who was present on the final day of the championship allayed the need for reformations and shake-ups in Nigeria table tennis following the early exit of the country’s representatives and as such, the Federation will make sure that the players will get the maximum attention needed going forward in terms of equipment, welfare, coaches and every other thing needed.
Speaking after the final game day of the WTT series with Sports247.ng which was also the award presentation for winners in various categories, Ishaku assessed the upset in the men’s single where Chinese star, Zhou Qihao who is ranked #35 in the world caused an upset against fans favorite ranked #14 Dimitrij Ovtcharov to emerge champion.
“World No 14 lost to world No 35, that’s table tennis for you but to me, they are all winners, the lesson here is that the best will always come out on top.”
“We have players here in Nigeria apart from Aruna Quadri who can place us in the world ranking and I’m assuring you that in the next contender, you are going to see Nigeria table tennis players making it to the final round.”
On Nigeria hosting a world championship – “They saw the capacity in us to host, so they gave us that right and you can see that this is one of the best hosting in the world. So I salute every member of the Nigeria tennis federation, Barrister Waheed Oshodi for his good works, the LOC and also Dr. Tandoh has done extremely well, this is one of the best competitions organized from this administration.”
“Now we are back to the drawing board to develop Nigeria table tennis and I’m assuring you that you are going to see Nigeria top in major competitions and championships going forward.”
“We will be participating in World championships like the one of this nature, training of our players and also the needful from the federation which is to support. We are looking at bringing foreign coaches to train our table tennis players, we are going to have a formidable female team in time to work and we are seriously working on it,” he assured.
It will be noteworthy to know that Right hand attack Chinese table tennis player, Zhou Qihao was the crowned champion of the WTT Contenders Lagos 2023 after dispatching German World No.14 Dimitrij Ovtcharov in the men’s singles final on Sunday at the Sir Molade Okoya Thomas Indoor Sports Hall.
The World No.35 landed his first Men’s Singles trophy on the WTT Series after clinching the title at WTT Contender Lagos 2023 with a 4-1 (11-7, 11-6, 11-8, 7-11, 11-7) upset over World No.14 Dimitrij Ovtcharov.
